The New Face of Knitting
and how the quilt shop can benefit
The knitting area at Nancy’s Quilt Shop In terms of popularity, knitting has certainly seen its share of ups and downs through the years. In the current decade, however, the artform has undergone a resurgence, capturing the attention of a new and different audience that includes teenagers, college students, young mothers, and even men. And with many quilters also showing an interest in knitting, a number of quilt shops have found a way to capitalize on this trend by adding knitting classes and supplies to their own stores.
In many ways, the trend can be attributed to the extensive variety of specialty yarns and fresh, new designs and tools that are available to knitters today. And attendees to International Quilt Market can get a first-hand look at some of these products. Exhibitors like Hanah Silk, Bryson Distributing, and Clover Needlecraft supply retailers with everything from standard knitting needles to patterns for fashion-forward knits.
Jan Carr, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Clover Needlecraft, says that the company has “enjoyed a steady increase in interest in knitting and crochet products along with a strong increase in sales over the last 3-4 years.” In fact, the company has added several knitting needles to their lineup of products in recent years. Among their bestsellers are the Bamboo Circular Knitting Needle, used for creating everything from scarves to afghans, and the Bamboo Double Point Knitting Needle, used for sock making.
Carr also says that there are many quilters who have developed an interest in knitting, crochet, and other needlework products. “Knitting is simple to learn and has a calming effect on most people,” he says. “It used to be thought of as an older person’s craft, but today, teens and even younger people are hip to knitting.”
And quilt shop owners who offer knitting supplies and classes can definitely help to bring in new customers, he adds, given that they are fully prepared for such. “It is important to make sure that you have a knowledgeable staff in your shop that can teach knitting or crochet,” he explains. “It is also essential to learn who and where the competition might be in your area.”
This has certainly been the case for Nancy Laussade, owner of Nancy’s Quilt Shop in Las Vegas, Nevada. Though she has been in business for six years, it wasn’t until three years ago that she decided to add knitting to the lineup of classes offered at her shop.
Sheri Berger (top) and the staff at The Loopy Ewe “We started very, very slowly,” she says. “I had a quilting instructor who knitted and she began teaching and meeting in the store with friends who knitted socks.” When this group expressed an interest in buying yarn from her as well, she began adding it to her inventory. “I just ordered sock yarn at first,” she continues, “because I had a committed group of people who were interested. We gradually added more and eventually decided to go ahead and stock a variety of inventory in yarn.”
Today, Nancy’s Quilt Shop offers customers an assortment of knitting supplies—wool and alpaca yarns, patterns, and notions, including circular needles for knitting socks. The store also has a special knitting area complete with a table for knitters to meet around and work on projects. And Laussade says that she feels fortunate to have this space to provide for her knitting customers—something that a standard yarn store might not be able to do. “If I was just selling yarn,” she says, “I would not have the luxury of having that space.”
She says that while the yarn only constitutes about 10% of the store’s overall sales, the addition has been worthwhile thus far. But she cautions that a quilt shop must make sure that it has the customer base for knitting products before adding them to its inventory. “I did,” she explains. “I had a knitting teacher and quilters who wanted to learn to knit. I only ordered what they wanted until I saw that it was going to take off. And I’m still very specific about what I order—it’s all catered to what classes are being taught.”
Amy Tyer (right) and Sheryl Means of Yarntopia Currently, the shop offers a substantial list of knitting classes including those for beginners as well as technique-specific classes for more experienced knitters. And Laussade says that there is definitely a “crossover” of sorts among the quilters and knitters that visit her store. Many of these knitters have developed an interest in quilting, while many of the quilters have begun to take up knitting.
But quilters aren’t the only ones trying their hand at knitting. It has also captured much of its new audience with the help of a thoroughly modern accomplice—the internet. Knitters around the world are using the internet as a way to connect and share their latest projects, favorite new finds, or interesting experiences. With a little help from Google, knitters can find a number of online knitting communities to which they can belong along with countless blogs written by knitters wanting to share their passion. The internet is also the ideal place for knitters to purchase their favorite (and often, hard to find) supplies.
Many quilt and knitting retail stores are finding that the internet is a great way to reach customers that might not otherwise walk into their stores. “It has been imperative to our business because we ship to countries all over the world,” explains Sheri Berger, owner of The Loopy Ewe, a knitting store out of St. Louis, Missouri.
“We’d never have that opportunity if we’d chosen to just do a physical retail shop,” she continues. Though The Loopy Ewe has minimal retail hours and in-person shoppers, they’ve chosen to concentrate on their online store because, Berger says, “there are so many people out there that don’t have a local yarn shop that they can just pop into and get what they need.”
Visitors to the online store can find an assortment of sock and lace yarns, as well as, patterns and accessories geared toward sock knitting. This focus on foot-friendly knits is a reflection of Berger’s own fondness for knitting socks.
As it turns out, knitting also suited her daughter, and together they both started making scarves. But after a year and a half of this, she asked herself, “How many scarves can one person need?” On the other hand, she says, “someone can never have too many socks.” So today, socks have become the project of choice for both of them.
Though she may have a preference, Berger says that one of the greatest things about knitting is that “there are so many options for the finished product—whether it’s scarves, socks, lace shawls, or sweaters.” It’s also fairly inexpensive, she continues, “and it’s something that you can sit and do with your family that doesn’t make a lot of noise. It’s a very productive, yet relaxing hobby.”
Berger documents many of her own adventures with knitting on her blog. Likewise, Amy Tyer and Sheryl Means, co-owners of the retail knitting store, Yarntopia, in Katy, Texas, maintain a blog for their site that includes information on their newest products and upcoming store events. Unlike The Loopy Ewe, however, the products that appear on the Yarntopia website represent only a fraction of their in-store merchandise.
Nicole Hunter (right) and Jenny Check of Stash and Burn Tyer says that the store’s main demographic is “women whose children are around junior high age or women who are in their 40’s and 50’s.” Tyer goes on to explain that while knitting is still popular among college-age people, the trend has died down a bit in the last couple of years. She now finds that knitting is becoming more popular among young mothers, women in their 20’s and 30’s.
“Because Katy is a suburb, there are a lot of mothers here,” she says. “We have people bring their babies into the store. We even have a changing table in the back in case they need it.”
But these young women aren’t knitting their “granny’s sweaters,” she adds. “There’s been a big push with patterns and in magazines and books to try to appeal to the more fashion conscious knitters. There is more of a trend toward high fashion, which is great for the younger women like me.”
Magazines like Vogue Knitting, Knit 1, and Knit ‘N Style are even featuring young, hip models that are comparable to those seen in the pages of the “regular” fashion magazine.
Another young artist with a penchant for fashionable knits is Nicole Hunter. On her website, she introduces herself as “a librarian who knits—or maybe a knitter who is a librarian.” Either way, since learning the artform in 2002, she has devoted a large part of her free time to knitting, blogging about knitting, and now, podcasting about the same.
“I started blogging because I wanted a way to catalog my knitting—there’s the librarian in me,” she says. “I had been reading other knitting blogs and was that there was a community online of support that I though would be helpful to me as a new-ish knitter.”
She says that she was also a fan of knitting podcasts and decided to launch her own with friend and fellow knitter, Jenny Check. With a little help from Jenny’s husband, the duo dubbed their new creation “Stash and Burn.” “Since we talked so much about our own stashes and because it is such a focus among knitters, we thought we would use it as our jumping off point,” Hunter says. Consequently, in their first episode, the two discussed ways that they would attempt to reduce the size of their own “stashes” in the following months.
They have since released an amazing 40+ episodes of their podcast, which feature their own ongoing projects, new and interesting products, and interviews with other knitting aficionados. And while it is fun to share their enthusiasm for knitting with people across the world wide web, Hunter says that she also has to remind herself “to close the laptop once and a while and knit!”
This shouldn’t be too difficult given her passion for the artform. “I can’t imagine my life without knitting,” she says. “It can be frustrating at first, but it is ultimately very relaxing. And there is nothing quite like a finished object. When you have that scarf, sock, or sweater, you almost can’t believe that you made it with your own two hands!”
—Rhianna White
For more information on the businesses mentioned above, visit the following websites:
www.clover-usa.com
www.nancysquiltshop.com
www.theloopyewe.com
www.yarntopiaonline.com
www.stashandburn.com
